Charles Addams's New York

Even the description of this old New Yorker cartoon made me laugh.

“This is your life!” Addams seems to shout again and again. But he does it, the exhibition points out, by sketching a scene that seems perfectly mundane, until we notice a tiny detail that suddenly overturns our expectations; our anticipation turns into dread. One sketch shows the popular television show of that name from the 1950s. “And now, George Pembrook,” the M.C. announces to the hapless man whose life is being celebrated, “here is the wife you haven’t seen in eighteen years!” She is emerging, scowling, from behind a curtain. Then we notice she holds a gun.